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How to succeed at Meta

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Re: How to succeed at Meta

#131

Post by zh3 »

ButterBiscuits wrote: post #128
y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #29

This person is getting a lot of snarky responses, but all of this is relatively true at Amazon also and it was true when I was at Intel 10 years ago. This is how large companies operate once they surpass the innovation phase, so it should be no surprise to anyone that's actually worked in a FAANG and doesn't pound down the kool-aid. Interesting how there's comments on this person being concerned solely with "TC" as i…

> There's nothing wrong in working at a FAANG for the money Sure, if you believe that making more money is the only thing that matters in this world. If you take this logic to its extreme you can justify anything if it makes you rich. You're simultaneously criticizing a system while defending your participation in it. There are lots of things wrong with working at a FAANG for the money. If you don't like how Amazon t…

Not only don't work for them, but surely also don't even use their product/services.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#132

Post by zh3 »

analyst74 wrote: post #97
yodsanklai wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I thought we were past the employer loyalty era and more accepting of the harsh reality that everything is profit-driven these days I think this is my biggest disappointment working for a big tech company. I don't feel I'm "part of the family" at all. Very high turnover, people come and go, some are fired, burn out, or move to another job. I'd love to feel I'm part of something, but it's not the case. Plus most pro…

If you feel like a family working for a company, but does not have significant ownership stake, you're being conned.

I'd disagree with that - what's wrong with working for a company that has a good culture, even if you don't have shares?

i.e. shares or not, I'd prefer to work for a company where I felt I was part of it as opposed to one that's just time served.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#133

Post by tayo42 »

davewritescode wrote: post #25
aantix wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're working for someone else's dream, what else is there? "TC" gives me and my family options to do other big things in the world. Yes, I want to take two big family vacations a year, live in a great neighborhood/ school district, and give my kids extra opportunities. Optimizing for "TC" makes sense.

This is nihilistic and short sighted way to see the world. Being highly visible inside and outside my company has opened up more opportunity long term in terms of being offered consulting roles and opportunities in early stage startups then being a worker bee at Amazon for 2 years until you burnout. I know many people who have taken that route and it's one of many paths. If you're a good engineer and can sell your wo…

there is no way most people do anything that is worth being visible. most work i did was unrelatable to anyone

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#134

Post by 121789 »

binarycrusader wrote: post #12
jabroni_salad wrote: post #4

thats every big company. Eventually there will be someone who makes a spreadsheet, sorts by a column, and makes a decision based on what they see. Or, perhaps they will send it to a management consultant who has been in the workforce for all of 6 months to make a powerpoint about the columns. Make sure you have a good rank on as many columns as possible.

For what it’s worth, I’ve worked for three large tech companies (Sun, Oracle, and currently Microsoft) as a developer and none have been like this. I’m sure someone was tracking metrics but I never had to worry about metrics and have just focused on my development role.

I think it's relevant for consumer products where changes are easily measurable, and especially relevant for data-focused teams (growth teams, ML teams)

if you're working on infra stuff, enterprise stuff, or longer term complex projects, not as important

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#135

Post by joshstrange »

This is why I don't work for large companies. I don't want the stress or to play the bullshit games.

My last company tried to pretend it was larger than it was and introduced KPIs. I pushed back hard but had little control over it. I argued that if we were going to be judged on KPIs then that's all we would spend our time on. Commits matter? Guess I'm committing every few lines. Bugs found matter? Guess I better backchannel with QA to prevent a real bug getting logged since I'll get dinged. Story points uncompleted matter? Guess I'll drop the points I take so I never worry about not finishing everything.

It gamifies everything and not in a good way. Just like this post says, it doesn't matter what is best long-term or what is good for company/customer, all that matters is what you are graded on.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#136

Post by joshstrange »

DethNinja wrote: post #42

I worked for large companies all my life and all of them are actually like this. I wonder how one can find companies with no office politics, and one that rewards real engineering work. Do any of the FAANGs actually qualify for this?

Smaller companies are the answer. I know people worry about things like "what if it goes under?" but honestly you should always be worried about that, even if the whole company doesn't go under they will jettison people to save the company without a second thought. Might as well work somewhere where your work is appreciated and actually moves the needle. Someplace where your voice matters and you get real work done.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#137

Post by mousetree »

sebhook wrote: post #129
potatolicious wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, having been on the inside at Google - they are not good at producing customer impact. The orgs are so large, so diffuse, and upper management so disconnected from on-the-ground execution that it's really all about gaming metrics. Even people who still want to produce customer impact have to play the game of stuffing their feature into a metrics-shaped-box so their projects don't get shut down. Google is obses…

I listened to Kara Swisher interview some top Apple execs who used to work closely with Steve Jobs recently. Unfortunately I think we're now in an era where design and user experience is a lower priority when shipping new products. I'm not sure what the path to fixing this is, or if it even needs to be fixed, but I do think that Steve Jobs created a cult of innovation and a beacon to aspire towards creativity-wise, e…

Are there hard facts to support this view? I've heard such an opinion so many times that I'm always skeptical on whether this is just the popular thing to say.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#138

Post by alecb »

ButterBiscuits wrote: post #128
y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #29

This person is getting a lot of snarky responses, but all of this is relatively true at Amazon also and it was true when I was at Intel 10 years ago. This is how large companies operate once they surpass the innovation phase, so it should be no surprise to anyone that's actually worked in a FAANG and doesn't pound down the kool-aid. Interesting how there's comments on this person being concerned solely with "TC" as i…

> There's nothing wrong in working at a FAANG for the money Sure, if you believe that making more money is the only thing that matters in this world. If you take this logic to its extreme you can justify anything if it makes you rich. You're simultaneously criticizing a system while defending your participation in it. There are lots of things wrong with working at a FAANG for the money. If you don't like how Amazon t…

If you believe Facebook is terrible, isn't taking a high-paid position there and gamifying their internal processes in your favor while not helping a floundering business plug the holes in its sinking ship the real way to take direct action? If several hundred people independently did this on their own (and perhaps not even intentionally), it could have a meaningful impact in taking down one of the worst corporations in human history.

Re: How to succeed at Meta

#140

Post by winphone1974 »

alecb wrote: post #138
ButterBiscuits wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's nothing wrong in working at a FAANG for the money Sure, if you believe that making more money is the only thing that matters in this world. If you take this logic to its extreme you can justify anything if it makes you rich. You're simultaneously criticizing a system while defending your participation in it. There are lots of things wrong with working at a FAANG for the money. If you don't like how Amazon t…

If you believe Facebook is terrible, isn't taking a high-paid position there and gamifying their internal processes in your favor while not helping a floundering business plug the holes in its sinking ship the real way to take direct action? If several hundred people independently did this on their own (and perhaps not even intentionally), it could have a meaningful impact in taking down one of the worst corporations…

You're essentially promoting the old "bringing them down from the inside" defense, which next to "I was only following orders" is the biggest lie we tell ourselves in order to sleep better
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